Changing Our Lives One Hair Cut at a Time
Just like getting our hair cut gives us the chance to look different outwardly, changing small things that we do each day can add up to extraordinary improvements in our lives.
I got my hair cut tonight. It always reminds me of that old saying, “New do, new you.” As if trimming our hair somehow magically transforms us into brand new people. Growing up, I always hating getting my hair cut. Not so much because the experience itself was particularly unpleasant, but because I never liked the changes in my look the much shorter hair always seemed to bring. It would take me a few weeks for my hair to grow back to an acceptable length for me to feel comfortable.
And now that I can get choose my own hair stylist, I tend to be pretty detailed in my vision before the cutting commences. I research different hair styles that work well with different shapes of faces and sizes of heads and I look up trends. I know: I’m a total geek. But in my way of thinking, changing my hairstyle in a positive direction makes as much of an impact on my overall look and confidence as just about anything else that I do to project a certain style. And by the way, thanks for dealing with me Kelly. You are an amazing stylist! So it’s important to me that since I only get my hair cut about every couple of months that I be really excited about the result and not have to dread looking in the mirror for the first few weeks after the cut.
Appearances are definitely no measure of anything of substance really. So I’m certainly not saying that we should judge the people around us as being smarter or more engaging or more world-wise or kinder or anything like that based simply on their looks. But I’ve noticed in my own personal living experience, that when I think I look good and professional and presentable, I feel just a bit better about myself. We, taking an external glance at a book cover shouldn’t judge the contents, perhaps. But the contents might feel a bit better because they are surrounded by the embrace of a beautiful cover.
It reminds me of a wonderful memory from my teenage years. I had a dear neighbor who was involved a fundraiser for a nature center in town. My neighbor asked me to dress up in Medieval-era clothes and become a wandering minstrel basically, during the festival which was geared around the Summer Solstice. I got a very believable tunic and a rustic belt and sandals. And I even got to carry a puppet chicken that was a hit with kids.
It was remarkable to me looking back now, just how easily and quickly I was transformed into someone else. I even tried my hand and an English accent to varying degrees of success and spouted out Shakespeare soliloquies when asked by the visiting public. Obviously, that really wasn’t who I was and no one assumed that I truly a traveling minstrel from the 16th century, but realizing how easy it was to become in some respects a totally different person, makes me wonder if we could take a similar tactic with much smaller aspects of our lives.
Are there routines that we don’t necessarily enjoy but we’ve been performing for so long that it hasn’t dawned on us to change them? Do we feel we’re in ruts that, in a real sense, keeps us from doing things that might bring greater joy into our lives? Or maybe, upon some personal reflection, we realize that most weeks, we are simply gritting our teeth to make it through the work week and then dreading Monday even while we still have the potential to enjoy two days of a weekend.
If any of these sound remotely familiar to any of us, maybe we could try sharpening our acting skills. Theater requires actors to imagine how a different person under different circumstances would react under the script’s specified scenarios. What script would we like to write for our days? What role would bring meaning and joy? Trying out even a small new role or a new routine in our lives might just be the thing that liberates us from those ruts that can so strongly hold us back. Just like getting our hair cut gives us the chance to look different outwardly, changing small things that we do each day can add up to extraordinary improvements in our lives.